Chapter 16 Vocabulary

Study of the earth’s dynamic history. Geologists study and analyze rocks and the features and processes of the earth’s interior and surface

Inner zone of the earth. It consists of a solid inner core and a liquid outer core (3)

Zone of the earth’s interior between its core and its crust (2)

Solid outer zone of the earth. It consists of oceanic crust and continental crust (1)

internal heat pushes rock upwards and down

type of movement that occurs with mantle

Various-sized areas of the earth’s lithosphere that move slowly around with the mantle’s flowing asthenosphere. Most earthquakes and volcanoes occur around the boundaries of these plates

Outer shell of the earth, composed of the crust and the rigid, outermost part of the mantle outside the asthenosphere; material found in earth’s plates

Theory of geophysical processes that explains the movements of lithospheric plates and the processes that occur at their boundaries

• concept that became widely accepted by geologists in the 1960s • continents have split and joined as plates have very slowly drifted thousands of kilometers back and forth across the planet’s surface

• lithospheric plate boundary - where the plates move apart in opposite directions

• lithospheric plate boundary - where the plates are pushed together by internal forces.

• lithospheric plate boundary • occurs where plates slide and grind past one another along a fracture (fault) in the lithosphere • most found on ocean floor, but some on land

• external process • process by which material is dissolved, loosened, or worn away from one part of the earth’s surface and deposited elsewhere • flowing streams cause most erosion • wind blowing particles causes it also

physical, chemical, and biological processes that break down rocks and minerals into smaller particles that can be eroded.

a large rock mass s broken into smaller fragments.

• most important agent of mechanical weathering - water collects in pores and cracks of rock, expands upon freezing, and splits off pieces of the rock

• one or more chemical reactions decompose a mass of rock - most chemical weathering involves a reaction of rock material with oxygen, carbon dioxide, and moisture

the conversion of rock minerals into smaller particles through the action of living things ex.) lichens produce acids that can chemically weather rocks

shaking of the ground resulting from the fracturing and displacement of rock, which produces a fault, or from subsequent movement along the fault

• scientists use it • each unit represents an amplitude 10 times greater than the next smaller unit • measures earthquakes

-after a big shock that gradually decreases in frequency over a period of up to several months

-occur seconds or up to weeks before the main shock

huge water waves (tidal waves)